Genesis 49:18

In Jacob's blessing, Dan comes in at the point of apostasy, but for that very reason also at the point of waiting for blessing. Dan is like an adder in the path biting the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward. And then comes an interjection, "I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord"; faith says that God must now come in.

It is the moment of total ruin among the Jews, but exactly the point of change for blessing. Then the cry comes out: "I have waited for Your salvation, O Jehovah." Here is the sudden change from the energy of Satan to a heart looking up and out to Jehovah Himself.

Here "salvation" is used, we judge, in the sense of deliverance. It is very clear that Dan marks out the apostasy of Israel in a future day. In view of this, the resource of those who remain faithful — the remnant — is shown. They will be brought to know that Jehovah alone can deliver them. Oppressed by "the man of the earth" and held in his grip, they will find human effort to get themselves out completely useless. So they must look to Jehovah alone for help. Faith, then, recognising this, says, "I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord." ... It is a lesson we all need to learn when we are brought into hard places, confusion, or trials. The flesh is impatient and, like Saul at Gilgal, cannot wait, but must do something to make a way out of its difficulties, to rescue itself.

The thought of these things stirred the prophetic soul of the patriarch, and led him to express his own faith and hope. "I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord." This is the first occurrence of the word "salvation" in our English Bible. Jacob had to wait for it. Many centuries later old Simeon could say, "My eyes have seen Your salvation," and each of us can now say that in heart and life we have experienced it. But in the sense Jacob had in mind, the cry still goes out: "Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!" (Ps. 14:7).

"Salvation" was identified with the coming and work of the Messiah. Believers understood little, if anything, of how it would happen. But they had no doubt about the saving grace that would then appear... they looked on to the last day as the goal of their hopes, when Messiah would establish salvation fully and for ever. How clearly it is "grace," not of works that human nature might boast in.

As he speaks his prophetic words about his sons, now and then his own heart is allowed to speak. These outbursts are full of spiritual affection, showing a much improved condition of soul... In earlier days he had been careless about the apostate ways of his children, who married the daughters of Canaan. But now, in the same prophetic words, he looks at the apostasy of Dan. Sick at heart over such a sight, he breathes out a longing for the promise — "I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord."

Believers already receive the end of their faith in the salvation of their souls, and the Spirit is the seal and witness of it. Now they have to wait patiently for that salvation to be completed by the redemption of their bodies... There is a sense in which the saints still wait, as Jacob and the prophets did, for God's salvation (Gen. 49:18; Isa. 25:9; 1 Peter 1:5).